Related

Another obvious statement: When the quarterback is Case Keenum and the opposing team face pressure, things can get out of hand. On Sunday, they did.

Keenum was sacked three times, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. In addition to those sacks, the New York Giants regularly hit, hurried and spooked Keenum into throwing it away, killing Los Angeles Rams drives throughout the game and making up for a lackluster offensive performance.

The Giants shouldn’t be getting pressure out of this front. It’s just a four-man rush and both defensive ends — Jason Pierre-Paul and Olivier Vernon — are split far outside, giving them 1-on-1 matchups against the tackles, at least in theory. It’s a gamble on Steve Spagnuolo’s part that either Pierre-Paul or Vernon will win their individual matchup, making up for the lack of pressure that will come from the middle where the Rams have three players to block two Giants.

The gamble pays off however, as Vernon fakes one way to gain a step on Rob Havenstein and it’s gravy from there. Keenum gets the ball out, but he’s lucky to only come away with an incomplete pass as Vernon forced him to shorten his throwing motion and hurry the throw.

This play can be boiled down to elementary school math: six is greater than five. Keenum seems to notice Jonathan Casillas on the edge, but doesn’t do anything about it assuming that he will drop into coverage. With two tight ends on the opposite side of the line of scrimmage, the right move may have been to motion one to the other side and have him block or adjust one of the routes to be a quick screen or slant route that would be open immediately. Keenum however, does neither, and nearly gets intercepted as a result of Casillas flying in unblocked.

Here, Johnathan Hankins hurries Keenum via bull rushing Cody Wichmann. Notice how Hankins stays in the play, even after Wichmann seemingly has the upper hand and drives him away from Keenum. Hankins is able to reverse course right before Keenum throws and get a hand up. Along with Damon Harrison, who winds up in that gap at the same time, Hankins is able to impact Keenum, whose throw is wildly inaccurate.

The Giants get home on this one as Jay Bromley sacks Keenum, but there’s credit to be given across the defensive line. The play action helps New York in two ways. First, it gives them an extra few milliseconds before Keenum throws. Second, it forces Todd Gurley to block linebacker Kelvin Sheppard because the right side of the offensive line has to act as if its run blocking in order to sell the fake.

In all fairness to Gurley, he does make the block, quite well in fact. As Olivier Vernon breaks through however, Gurley’s not there to chip him. Instead, Keenum has to desperately try and step up out of the pocket. He’s off balance after doing that as Vernon gets a hand on him and Bromley comes in to finish the job.